Perugina Dark Chocolate 51% cacao

A good, but simple, dark chocolate. Cocoa flavor dominates, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. 6.8

Vanini 86% cacao

This bar is very bitter, with a long lasting aftertaste that makes the mouth pucker. Behind the bitter facade is a clean dark chocolate, with few side flavors. A colleague thought she tasted cherries and tannins. 6.7

http://www.vaninicioccolato.it

Schoggi Grand Cru 65% cacao

Pleasant. Sweet (for a dark chocolate). Pure, clean note, no side flavors other than vanilla. 7.7

This bar's ingredients are listed as: Cacao, cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla, lecithin. I should pay closer attention to this list.  When the list is longer than "cacao, cocoa butter, sugar" you may get characteristics of significant note in the taste of the bar.  This bar adds in vanilla, and there is a vanilla flavor noticeable. But is it really needed here? Lecithin's Wikipedia entry lists these reasons for why it might be used: "In confectionery, it reduces viscosity, replaces more expensive ingredients, controls sugar crystallization and the flow properties of chocolate, helps in the homogeneous mixing of ingredients, improves shelf life for some products, and can be used as a coating." Replaces more expensive ingredients? I don't like the sound of that.

This bar comes from a confectionery with stores in the city. They mostly sell truffles and such, and this visit was the first time I noticed a pure chocolate bar on their shelf. It's a good chocolate, but I wonder what it would taste like without he vanilla and the lecithin.

schoggi.us

Benoit Nihant Cuba Baracoa 74% cacao

Very low bitterness. The aftertaste fades almost as fast as it starts. There is a distinct cinnamon flavor noticeable, giving a spicy edge to the bar. 8.5

One has to ask: if I cannot get Cuban cigars here in the states, why can I get Cuban chocolate? I assume it is because the beans were exported to Belgium for Benoit Nihant to manufacture, and for trade purposes this is actually a Belgian bar.